New Business
[Blogger: I have a question mark about Jason mentioning a meeting and discussion with Terrie Nielsen. I do not know what that referred to.]
Vic brought up the resolution for local government: Do we want to look at and pass that? Most of the townships have signed up. Most of the townships have passed resolutions about this concept.
[This is related to the budget commission. The resolution as I understand it requests distribution of funds based on a tax formula. Right now, distribution to each community is on a per capita basis. This produces a disparity in funding.]
Jason asked for a motion to approve the resolution; John Festa made the motion.
Vic seconded; passed unanimously.
Vic has been doing the legwork on this and attending meetings regarding this issue.
Old Business
Jason confirmed that Vic will set up insurance meetings with Mike Kasmarik.
Vic: John Festa and Vic met with the architect about the elevator. There was a lot of information.
Jason: Hal Stamm sent out an e-mail stating that we need to send a contract to [and your blogger missed that name.]
[There is an item that will cost $10,900 =/-, I think for fire. John Zeit is going to check on this with Hal Stamm.]
John Festa: It is a stand-alone component. It is specifically for the elevator. I don't know if the commissioners want to get additional . . . . I don't know the kind of controller that is being used on it.
Jason: This wasn't a part of the original?
Vic: I think it was. When we had the meeting with the building department and fire department, we said that instead of the fire curtains, we would put additional smoke detectors in the hall.
Do you want me to get Ashton to come out? [That is one of the contractors on the elevator--the fire-related components, I believe.]
John Festa: Everything is on line to be completed. As soon as we get this recall function completed, we are almost ready for inspection in the next couiple of weeks. [Blogger: Views of the expected completion date differ.]
John Festa: We had some storms last week that took a lot of shingles off the Civic Center. Now we have exposed wood.
Vic: I can give you a phone number.
John Festa: Why don't you just call him. [Blogger's boldface.]
Vic: OK. He has done some good, very reasonable work.
John Festa: Dan Wyznski and I went and looked at that slab [at the Civic Center]. We are going to caulk it for the winter so water can't get in behind or under it.
Sue Skrovan: It pulled the caulk--the whole thing sank evenly and the window in the hallway has moisture in it--there is moisture in the wall.
John Festa: That could be either a roofing or a soffit issue.
Jason asked for any other additional old business.
Public Comment
Amy Janca suggested possibly Reinecker's to do work on the Civic Center.
Vic will call them also.
Amy: Some of us on the cemetery committee have been working about the grounds and there are old graves with very overgrown plantings and bushes. Maybe when the road crew has equipment there and is digging they can dig up some of them. We can put them by the mausoleum for a period of time if someone can use them. Some of the older graves are so overgrown that the headstones can't be read any more.
Sue Skrovan: In the past the LCA has gone back and cut back shrubbery. We will do that again.
Carole Pollard, Allyn Road: I read a letter that a number of us circulated to get signatures regarding the intersection of Mantua Center Road and S.R. 82. The text follows. We had approximately 90 signatures on it.
To: The Mantua Township Trustees
From: Concerned Citizens
Subject: Intersection of S.R. 82 and Mantua Center Road
As people who travel on S.R. 82 and Mantua Center Road, we are very aware, as yuou must also be, that the intersection of those roads have [sic] posed a risk for years.
The ODOT work on Rt. 82 scheduled for 2019 seems like an opportunity for the trustees to add a request that the state also modify the grades and levels of Rt. 82 through the intersection and of Center Road on both sides of S.R. 82.
We are offering this letter as support for you in making a request to ODOT to modify the intersection to make it safer not just now, but with an eye to the inevitable increases in traffic that the future will bring.
Thank you for your attention to this matter, which the safety of everyone who goes through Mantua Center in any direction.
Yours truly,
Cc: ODOT Akron; Ohio State Senator John Ecklund; United States Congressman David Joyce
Jason has done some followup on this and read an e-mail exchange he had with Joe DiFuria, manager of the ODOT garage/office in Akron. I did not take notes on that because it was more of a conversation between Jason and me, and taking notes during it would have been awkward.
Basically, if I remember correctly, Mr. DiFuria [I may have the name spelled and capitalized incorrectly] nicely explained why probably that work is not on the schedule. The position of those of us who signed the letter is that we should work to change his mind and the schedule.
I was pleased that Jason had had the exchange with Mr. DiFuria.
Sue Lilley, Mantua Center Road: I asked earlier about whether you can fix Mantua Center Road. It hasn't been done yet.
Vic: I will bring it up to the guys again.
Sue Lilley: Can you give me a plan?
Vic: I think there was water at the time.
Sue L. It has been dry.
Vic: We will get them down there.
Dave Pollard, S.R. 82: I am just hoping that if you are seeing bare wood on the Civic Center roof because Monday and Tuesday rain is forecast. [Blogger: My notes do not make sense for that sentence; I may have gotten ahead of or behind myself or omitted something. Apologies!]
I just hope you can prevail on ODOT about the intersection. What prompted me to begin recommending this is that when ODOT was in Streetsboro they decided to raise the level of S.R. 303 because it floods. But it only floods occasionally in Streetsboro. This is dangerous every day. I realize that 303 is inside a city and they get preference. But if you don't ask, the answer is no.
I know you aren't dropping it, but sometimes gentle pressure might work. No one wants anyone to be harmed but if an ODOT family member was jurt out here, they just might look at it differently.
Then Dave returned to the Civic Center: Now there are attractive steel shingles that last 70-80 years. The real thing to look into is solar shingles that look like regular shingles.
[Blogger note: Elon Musk, of Tesla fame, is developing solar shingles. I watched a video showing how they look--there are four styles, one of which looks like slate--on several test homes. When I mentioned them to John Zeit about the school, he said without hesitation that we can't afford them. But what an idea!]
[Final note: This period of time is very busy, so I have not asked for a recording of this meeting. Usually the only reason to have that is to be able to include my own comments accurately. For this meeting, there was nothing so significant or flamboyant that it warranted the trouble of the recording.]
The main meeting ended at 8:30, and I went home shortly after.
About This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Principles
Two ideas guide and support me:
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
